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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Every Linux novice goes through this phase - confusion to decide which Ubuntu to install when now you've got so many versions of Ubuntu coming out of the stable. The aim of this article is to facilitate taking decision by briefing about what distro has to offer and a comparison of their performance.I take up here the latest Ubuntu release 13.04, codenamed "Raring Ringtail". Released in April 2013, it comes in five distinct desktop environmentsUnity in Ubuntu 13.04It started as a net-book OS environment and gradually gained favor from Canonical. The much criticized (and rightly so because of its initial instability) desktop environment is now gradually improving in terms of performance and stability. It is kind of a minimalistic desktop with a left hand side strip, accommodating the user's favorite applications, along with a heavy integration to social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.) through its unique dash. It is still not as stable as I would like it to be but, I feel, Unity has the potential to challenge the operating system biggies like Windows and Mac OS X. It is intuitive and very easy to use but not as customizable as a KDE. Right now, its use is limited only to Ubuntu. Unity leverages the Gnome 3 ecosystem of applications with Files (forked from Nautilus) as the file manager. My review of Ubuntu 13.04.

KDE in Kubuntu 13.04Possibly the most popular desktop (based on the queries and visits I get everyday), it has gained more prominence in last couple of years with serious deficiencies and instability in GNOME and Unity. KDE itself had its share of brief instability (in 4.8.* series), but things settled down with the release of 4.9.* series of KDE desktops. With the introduction of KDE 4.10.* series, performance has improved significantly. Looks-wise, it hasn't changed much in last one year and it resembles Windows 7 a lot. Further, KDE has its own ecosystem of applications with Dolphin as the file manager and is self-sufficient in that aspect. With easy usage, increase in stability and efficiency, KDE has found admirers among Linux experts as well. Almost every distro has a KDE version to offer. Ubuntu KDE version is called Kubuntu. Earlier it was owned by Canonical (the corporate funding Ubuntu) and now it is funded by Blue Systems (who funds Linux Mint as well). My review of Kubuntu 13.04.

XFCE in Xubuntu 13.04My favorite desktop environment! XFCE is lightweight and extremely efficient; further, it offers enough customization options for the users to make it look very exceptional and different. XFCE has gained prominence among Linux old timers who used to prefer Gnome 2. XFCE, too, has some ecosystem of applications and has a power file manager Thunar. Functionality-wise, XFCE is equivalent to KDE and GNOME, intuitive and easy to use. My review of Xubuntu 13.04.

LXDE in Lubuntu 13.04A bit less popular than GNOME, Unity, KDE and XFCE but is extremely powerful. It offers plenty of flexibility but requires users to have some prior experience in Linux. For a Linux newbie, at times, LXDE can be a bit difficult challenge than an XFCE, for example. LXDE is lighter than XFCE and works really well on ever on systems with limited resources. If you've a low powered / antiquated PC/laptop, Lubuntu with LXDE desktop environment can work better than other desktops mentioned here. Even on high powered systems, if you follow the "Go Green" motto, LXDE can help you to leave less carbon footprints on the planet. My review of Lubuntu 13.04.

GNOME 3 in Ubuntu 13.04 GNOMEGnome 2 used to be my favorite desktop couple of years ago. It is still the best desktop environment that I have used till date. But, Gnome developers thought of shaking up the Linux world and made a lot of drastic changes in Gnome 3.* releases. As an user, Gnome 3 became less intuitive, heavy and inefficient for me and I had to give up using Gnome for production purposes. Imagine a desktop without shut down button! But, with GNOME 3.4 onwards, things started looking better. For me, GNOME 3.8 is actually the best release in the GNOME 3 series and it corrects a lot of vices and inefficiencies that existed in their previous releases. Like Unity, GNOME 3.8 too offers very good social network integration and should appeal to today's youth looking for more than an operating system. My review of Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME.

Ubuntu vs Kubuntu vs Xubuntu vs LubuntuWith the brief introductions above, I take you through the actual comparison in a tabular format. All RAM & CPU usage given here are based on the results from the same laptop (Asus K54C) and measured under identical conditions.

As evident, Lubuntu is the most efficient followed by Xubuntu. Kubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome perform almost equivalent. Though Ubuntu with Unity is less resource efficient but expect all future innovations from Ubuntu stable to first land in Ubuntu with Unity and then gradually roll down (or not at all) to other OSs. For example, photo lens, video lens, etc.So, if you have a laptop/desktop with at least a dual core processor (AMD or Intel), go for Ubuntu with Unity/Gnome and Kubuntu. If it is first generation dual core or less than dual core, than possibly a Lubuntu or a Xubuntu will give you better results. Also, if you are eco-conscious, then also you may like to use a resource friendly OS like Xubuntu or a Lubuntu. However, if you are heavily into social networking, I would recommend you an Ubuntu with Unity or Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME.

Thus, the inference is that which of these five operating systems are good or bad essentially depends on your requirements and the system you are using. I have used all five of them and they are fantastic in their own rights.

31 comments:

I think that you should every distro default desktop, not those with Conky and docks. That may be deceiving for people trying Ubuntu for the first time, waiting to get what they see in the pictures and getting another thing instead.

I guess I will wait for the next Mint KDE. Currently I am a bit frustrated by my Lubuntu 13.04: it's kind of a bare bones distro and there are some rough edges. I am past my early Ubuntu days when tweaking was a prerequisite even with that mainstream a distro. I guess since Hardy I have become more and more lazy, to the point that bloated distros (all the Ultimate-based family, Hybride, Cubuntu) are now a way to do a comprehensive fresh install. Haven't yet tested the synaptic option to save software preferences and do a batch install though.

Lubuntu is a bit bare bone - I agree. You can try out Ultimate Edition 3.5 - it has a combo of Ubuntu to Lubuntu and provides all possibly applications under the Ubuntu hood! It looks a bit ugly and require some polishing from the user but is fun to use. I used it for sometime - it gives option of KDE, Unity, GNOME 3.4, GNOME fallback, Cinnamon, LXDE, XFCE, Openbox, etc.

The RAM usage shoots up once you open any application. These numbers are recorded 5 minutes after boot up with no application except the DE and system monitor running. And all from 32-bit installations. If you are using 64 bit then even at steady state RAM usage will be excess of 250 MB. I know the numbers I have recorded.

Hi, I'm using Ubuntu 12.10 with the classic Gnome Shell on all my home PCs and found it very stable. I'm reluctant to upgrade to 13.04 because of the features they removed from Nautilus. I may try Mint. On a test machine I added the Thunar File Mgr. Nice review. Keep up the good work. Jim from PA.

The main instability for Ubuntu comes from the Unity DE. Else, with other desktops like XFCE, LXDE, GNOME & KDE, it is quite stable. I agree with you on the stability point - with GNOME fallback, Ubuntu is very stable.

Your efforts are excellent. I agree with the comment about comparing the standard desktops (without enhancements) so it is like comparing apples with apples rather than an enhanced fruit of some sort. I totally agree with your observations, and used Ubuntu for many years until the change to Unity. Now, I use Mint (although I have Kubuntu downloading to another machine as I write this). Again, thanks for helping to clarify some of the confusion with the multiple OSs.Tay

That's pretty awesome comparison, exactly what I was looking for. I've a one question though. I've fairly old PC with 3GB of Ram and 2.23 GHZ of single core AMD processor should I install LUbuntu or KUbuntu? Which one has better community support?

My 6 year old Toshiba has run Windows Vista flawlessly but a little choppy, and a million other distros of linux amazingly. I just installed Lubuntu on it and I have never seen it work so fast. This is a good review though, I've used all of them on different computers.